(Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Have been rather busy, and have found it hard to find time to sit down and write. I’ll try my best to post weekly from now on.)
In today’s post I’m going to look at some of the reasons why you should stop posting content to Article Directories.
Let’s start off by explaining what an article directory is, and why people post to them.
What is an Article Directory?
The name’s a big giveaway here, but an article directory is a website that hosts various articles, on various topics, written by various people. You’re likely to have heard or even visited some of the bigger ones. Sites like Squidoo, ehow, Ezinearticles and hubpages are all examples of article directories. Anyone is free to submit original content to these directories, and pending a successful review, your article will go live on the site. But why do people post content on article directories?
Why do People Post Content to Article Directories?
Article Directories generally allow to user to submit an Author Byline with their article. The Author Byline usually contains some information about the Author, and may also contain a link back to the author’s website (which is often related to the content in some way). In the past, this was seen as a great way of getting a high quality backlink to your site. If your article was popular, you might have even got a lot of direct traffic to your site.
Sadly, times have changed, and Google algorithm updates have come and gone (and they keep on coming). The number of article directories on the web exploded during the noughties. More and more directories were popping up, and more and more people were submitting content to them. SEOers knew that posting to article directories was a great way of advertising their site and getting a nice quality backlink. Google knew they knew this.
With more and more article directories popping up, and more and more people posting to them, the quality of article directories and the quality of the articles on them began to decrease. Article directories began to become diluted with average quality content which covered little, if any, new material. Spammers began posting spun articles to directories in an attempt to artificially improve their rankings in Search Engines. Google knew this and they acted accordingly in an attempt to stop it.
Google introduced the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates which tackled problems related to keyword stuffing and duplicate content (where article directories were concerned). Sites with thin content, duplicate content and content with stuffed keywords were all punished. I won’t go much further into the algorithm updates here. If you’d like to know more I suggest reading this post here – http://www.helloseocopywriting.com/9/post/2013/02/how-googles-panda-and-penguin-updates-have-affected-article-marketing.html
Why You Should Stop Posting Content to Article Directories
OK, before I go any further I should say, contrary to the title of this post, not everyone should stop posting content to article directories. Of course, those who have been doing it for some time and are successful article marketers should continue what they are doing. These people have likely made a name for themselves and their articles would prove to be popular wherever they might post them.
However, if you’re new to the web and you’re trying to get your site some exposure, don’t waste time posting content to articles directories. It’ll do you little good in terms of search rankings and it’s unlikely to get you much in the way of direct traffic.
Where Should You Post Content?
You should either be posting content on your own site (an onsite blog for example) or posting content on sites in relevant niches (as guest posts etc.).
Content posted on your site will get crawled by the search engine bots, and you’ll likely get a few hits from search engines without doing too much in the way of SEO. The more content on your site, the more hits you’ll get. If the content’s worth sharing, it will get shared; resulting in more visits to your site.
Posting content on sites in relevant niches has a number of positive outcomes. If the site is similar to your site (which it should be), you’ll likely get valuable visitors to your site. They will be interested in the content you have on your site, and are likely to stay just that little bit longer.
You will also be building relationships with other bloggers and webmasters. If you provide them with content, they might even return the favour.
Another positive outcome (and I believe this one to be the most powerful) is that you will be getting your name out there. Becoming an authority figure in your selected niche isn’t easy. The best way of getting there is by posting great content in places where interested people will see it. If someone reads one of your posts and enjoys it, they might just remember your name. In the future, if they see you’ve wrote another article, they will be more likely to read it. Now imagine if thousands of people enjoyed reading your posts and recognised your name. These people will read your content wherever you might post it, they will share it on social networks, and both you and your site will benefit from it.
It’s good if your content goes viral. It’s awesome if your name goes viral.
For a history of the Google algorithm updates, I recommend visiting this page on SEOmoz.
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